Compare Diderot and Rousseau (in his Reveries of a Solitary Walker) on human happiness. Use the following quotes as a way into the topic.
Diderot: “We are innocent. We are happy. And you can only hurt our felicity. We follow the unsullied instinct of nature alone. And you have tried to erase its mark from our souls.” (p. 8 of Reader)
Rousseau (Reveries of a Solitary Walker): “I look upon those two months as the happiest time of my life, so happy that I would have been content to live all my life in this way…” (p. 48 of Reader)
Diderot
Bougainville is the man doing the expedition
Diderot was the old man speaking; a father of a large family.
He speaks of when the Europeans arrived into Tahiti. He knew what was coming. He did not show them any fear or worry. The European approached Bougainville, he turned his back towards them and walked into his hut. …show more content…
He was very loved by the people of the area. They didn’t want him to leave, as he was leaving, he told them:
-You tahitians should cry, not because of their departure, but their arrival.
-one day you will know them better
-one day they will return, and take your piece of wood and your sword, instead use them on you, slaughter you, put you in chains and to use you for their wild fantasies.
-one day they will make you slaves, after they turn you into corrupt people just like them.
-As I am approaching the end of my life span, whatever I tell you, I will tell you calmly as this wont happen when I’m alive.
-you would have one way of escaping that future, but I would rather die then to give u this advice.
Let them go away and let them live!
-diderot then turns to bougainville and says to him that the tahitians are innocent,
Diderot: “We are innocent. We are happy. And you can only hurt our felicity. We follow the unsullied instinct of nature alone. And you have tried to erase its mark from our souls.” (p. 8 of Reader)
Rousseau (Reveries of a Solitary Walker): “I look upon those two months as the happiest time of my life, so happy that I would have been content to live all my life in this way…” (p. 48 of Reader)
Diderot
Bougainville is the man doing the expedition
Diderot was the old man speaking; a father of a large family.
He speaks of when the Europeans arrived into Tahiti. He knew what was coming. He did not show them any fear or worry. The European approached Bougainville, he turned his back towards them and walked into his hut. …show more content…
He was very loved by the people of the area. They didn’t want him to leave, as he was leaving, he told them:
-You tahitians should cry, not because of their departure, but their arrival.
-one day you will know them better
-one day they will return, and take your piece of wood and your sword, instead use them on you, slaughter you, put you in chains and to use you for their wild fantasies.
-one day they will make you slaves, after they turn you into corrupt people just like them.
-As I am approaching the end of my life span, whatever I tell you, I will tell you calmly as this wont happen when I’m alive.
-you would have one way of escaping that future, but I would rather die then to give u this advice.
Let them go away and let them live!
-diderot then turns to bougainville and says to him that the tahitians are innocent,